Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 28 September

The Right Way starts us off with Top of the News

Former New York Judge Kills Himself As FBI Arrive to Arrest Him - IOTW Report
Israel strikes targets in Lebanon - The New Neo

Animal Magnetism - Animal’s Hump Day News

Who will stay in Chicago? Nobody, if they have any brains.
If you’da asked me, I coulda told ya.

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.27.24 (Returning From The Secret City Edition)

michele catalano: Betting It All Away,
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Are You Racist? Notes From A Cluttered Mind, Totem Polls...

EBL - Filibuster Flip Flopping Kamala 😬🐬🩴

TOM: The Slow Death of Kamala’s ‘Joy’, STOP DOING THIS!, and Thought Criminal: Eric Weinstein
Instapundit: Democrat Manchin refused to endorse Kamala over her filibuster flip

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 27 September 2024: Ghost Of Ghost Edition

HP is adding AI to its printers. (Ars Technica)
We're already not buying your printers, guys. You can stop making them worse.

Small Dead Animals - Wednesday On Turtle Island

Woke World: Arson attacks in Europe. Eco-warriors and an Irish pub. Paul Joseph Watson – They’re doing it again.
Cackling Kamala’s America: Just plain evil. Kamala’s migrant children. The new poll.

A View from the Porch - Flotsam and Jetsam - Friday DIY

Ace of Spades HQ Even the NY Times Admits That Stephanie Ruhle Is a Hardcore Kamala Harris Partisan Who Did Not Press Her on Any Issues, Says Kamala Harris Failed to Offer Any Substantive Answers

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/26/2024

A former FBI specialist who was persecuted for questioning January 6 said during a hearing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill that Americans should stock up on food and prepare for hardship.

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism – Unanswered Trump Assassination Questions!

Report: Secret Service Identified Rooftop as a Potential Vulnerability Days Before Rally
Secret Service Didn’t Secure the Building

Vlad Tepes - Muslims behaving badly and Health Canada now admits the vaxx causes more covid deaths than those not vaxxed: Links 1 for Sept. 25, 2024

1. Muslims in Berlin taunt police in English for some reason
Below, Chris Dacey video from Parliament Hill in Ottawa showing a Muslim anti Israel protestor asking people to make sure Canada collapses and ceases to exist.

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Phil Magness reviews Boyce Thompson’s Lincoln’s Lost Colony.
Scott Lincicome reports on “the government’s war on starter homes.”

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

Trump Should Be Running Away with the Election. Why Isn’t He?
Even Al Gore is Roasting Kamala Harris

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/25/24

Hatecraft and the American Left.
Prager U Video: Is Maoism Coming to America?

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: The Real Kamala Harris

• Monkeypox: more reasons to never trust another public health official - Bad cattitude • 20 State AGs Accuse Pediatricians Group of Promoting ‘Abusive’ Treatment of Gender Dysphoric Kids - Ann Moreno

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 09/26/2024

Secret cryptographic algorithms hidden in State Bureau of Elections official voter registration databases appear designed for secret rogue agents to facilitate the fraudulent voting of mail-in ballots

I leave you with Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #2035 from 90 Miles From Tyranny, Your mid-week memes from Wirecutter, Friday funnies from Bluebird of Bitterness, and Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic.

You Are Not Protected By Your Zip Code

Why people believe that they are, is beyond me. Neighbors share concern after police say homeowner shoots intruder in southwest Las Vegas

A fairly common story of homeowner dealing with a home invasion.

During a news conference, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide Lieutenant Jason Johansson said the homeowner called 911 around 7:40 a.m. stating that a strange man was breaking windows, trying to get inside their house.

Eventually, after telling the guy to leave, and him not listening the homeowner shot him.

Officers found that man in the driveway with a gunshot wound. He later died at the hospital.

The neighbors are the heart of this story.

“I was shocked,” Jennifer Sauberan said. “Because it’s a very quiet neighborhood.”

Sauberan, who told 8 News Now she has lived in her neighborhood near Torrey Pines Drive and Flamingo Drive for decades, was startled by a crime scene on her street.

Bad guys have cars, and can drive to your neighborhood. People in your neighborhood might do drugs and become irrational. (This guy was described as "extremely irrational.") In short, crime is NOT something that happens to "other kinds of people" in "other kinds of places." It can happen to you.

Cops are still investigating, but to me, at a thousand miles distance, it seems a pretty straight forward case of self-defense, which is a human right.

Do You Believe The System™ Is Honest?

You sweet summer child. The System™ takes care of its own. From the NY Post: Ex-NYS judge, prosecutor apparently kills himself after shootout with FBI agents who arrived to arrest him on corruption charges: report

A retired upstate New York judge and former prosecutor allegedly shot himself to death Tuesday morning in a shootout with FBI agents trying to bust him on bribery and corruption charges, according to sources.

Stewart Rosenwasser, who has been embroiled in a sordid federal bribery scandal, allegedly opened fire on the agents as they approached his Orange County home before his death by apparent suicide shortly after 9:30 am, law enforcement sources told The Post.

Orange County, New York is about 40 miles north of NYC.

A friend of the judge claimed he had been ripped off by relatives. The judge took care of it, sending one of those relatives to jail.

It doesn't say whether or not the guy had been ripped off, only that the judge had allegedly put his thumb on the scale of justice.

The exchange of gunfire came one day after a federal grand jury voted to indict Rosenwasser for allegedly taking $63,000 in payoffs to rig a case on behalf of an old pal who claimed he was embezzled by relatives.

Trust no one, and certainly not anyone in government.

Ember

Today we have song from a musician I know almost nothing about. He is another artist I was introduced to by way of the Tidal music app. Plini, is an Australian guitarist and songwriter. (That is not his full name, but like Cher, he has dropped everything but his first name.) He says that one of his influences in his playing is the legend Joe Satriani. Steve Vai also had nice things to say about his playing.

As for this song, it showcases his technical proficiency. I am not quite convinced about the songwriting. I will have to listen to more of his work, and to this song again.

This song is "Ember" by Plini. It was released in October as a single from his 1 December 2023 EP, titled Mirage.

Attitude Is More Important Than People Think

From The Other McCain we get a life lesson. Sports, Politics and War: Morale Matters

One is reminded of the old adage that England’s wars were won on the playing fields of Eton, by which it was meant that the education system of British leadership caste was such as to instill in young men the attitudes necessary to victory. The old “stiff upper lip” disposition of British officers, the quality of calm amid crisis, the dogged persistence in the face of daunting odds and discouraging setbacks — “the playing fields of Eton” taught those qualities, somehow. If there is any cause to be pessimistic about America’s future, certainly the state of our education system is at the top of the list, because there is no effort to create leadership of that character.

Go see what he has to say, what brought it to mind, and more.

Gen Z gets bent out of shape if they hear an opinion that they disagree with. They will be in no state to fend off the 21st Century version of the Sack of Rome.

Friday Links - 27 September

Lone Star Parson is first with a story I have been studiously ignoring. P Diddy

That's our Diddy. He's been denied bail and we have to wonder at the blackmail list. Behold your beloved rulers? Good luck. And of course Harry and Meghan aren't part of this, at all. Diddy's on suicide watch in gaol, go figure. Maybe the cameras will magically turn themselves off.

Miguel Gonzalez - The Missus Home Gun. Includes a photo by Oleg Volk.

I was finally able to zero and do a more thorough test of the Missus AR9 pistol. I am very happy with the alleged peashooter.

The Other McCain - The Slow Death of Kamala’s ‘Joy’

Notice something about that picture of Vice President Kamala Harris? She’s wearing sneakers. Is this supposed to be some kind of message? At age 59, she is the candidate of youth, or something? In a campaign short on substance and long on symbolism, we can be certain that having the candidate onstage in a pair of Chuck Taylors is not mere coincidence.

Again from Miguel Gonzalez - And we will be caught in the middle.

My initial intention was to write about an article from the NY Post about Venezuelan gangs invading already occupied territory in Chicago, but Peter already did a good job, plus he added a couple of interesting tidbits. [SNIP]

I am from a part of Caracas that the US Embassy has declared a “Red Zone, Do Not Visit” for many decades, even before Chavez and his Communist descendants let the gangs flourish. The criminals there are different from what the average US-Born American criminal has ever experienced. I guess I can define it as exceedingly cruel.

Again from The Other McCain - STOP DOING THIS!

Look, I don’t want to name any names or call anybody out, but I am sick and tired of the defeatist negativity that crops up in the comments every time I blog about the election.

Tam at View From The Porch - THIS! AIN'T! SPARTA!

Indiana National Guard troops are heading out for a deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Spartan Shield, described in press release boilerplate as "the United States' operation to strengthen defense relationships and build partner capacity through leader engagements, multinational exercises and response planning."

Self-Defense Seems to Be Legal in Denver

I can't really tell how the DA feels about that from the statement. Prosecutors won't charge resident who fatally shot intruder | Denver Gazette

According to Denver Police, a resident returned to an apartment inside One Observatory Park around 1 a.m. on July 21 and was startled by an intruder. The apartment building is on East Evans Avenue, just east of South University Boulevard.

The resident shot the intruder, who died at the scene, police said. The man, identified as 27-year-old Nelson Kimathi, died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the coroner's office.

It took police from July to this week to get their investigation complete. To be fair, they may have been waiting on something from the autopsy.

It took the DA less than a week to make the self-defense call, so that's not too bad.

Nowhere in the statement, however, does the DA talk about justice, or individual rights. The statement only says, effectively, "We can't win this one, so we won't try."

What's The Opposite of Diversity?

University. From the New York Post we get a story about hate at the City University of New York (CUNY). CUNY needs overhaul to combat 'alarming' antisemitism: NY probe

CUNY needs a top-to-bottom overhaul to combat “alarming’’ antisemitism fanned by its own faculty and do-nothing higher-ups, according to a damning independent probe commissioned by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“I feel compelled to note that recently there has been an alarming number of unacceptable antisemitic incidents targeting members of the CUNY community,” widely respected retired state Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said in a letter to Hochul accompanying Tuesday’s release of the stinging findings after a 10-month review.

But then NYC has been devolving into a cesspool of hate for some time.

Click thru for details, including the attitude and inaction of the administration, the problems caused by faculty, etc.

But then the entire university system in America is off the rails, down the embankment, through the fences, and on fire. CUNY is just more hate filled than most.

First Female US Army Sniper

From the Army Times. Meet the Army’s first female active duty sniper

Not the first in the history of the world, but the first in the history of the US Army.

U.S. Army Sgt. Maciel Hay, a cavalry scout with 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade passed Army Sniper School in November of 2023.

“A close friend of mine told me I’d never make it in the Army, and there’s no way I could become a sniper,” Hay said. “Needless to say, that person is no longer part of my life. But now that I look back at it, I really do appreciate the motivation.”

You can click thru for the details.

Hat tip to Angry Cops: Airman Escapes Arranged Marriage in Pakistan & 1st Female Sniper

The history of female snipers in WWII was of interest to me a few years ago, when I was researching those part of WWII history not covered in schools in Illinois. You can find some of it after the break.

A DaleyGator Musical Interlude

From The DaleyGator at If You are Left you ain't Right - GUITAR GREATNESS

Click thru for "Blue Jean Blues" by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

I'm not sure Billy Gibbons gets enough respect as a guitarist. He certainly should. And at 74, he is still performing; he has concert dates scheduled out to February of next year.

Hurricane Helene Intensifies to Category 4

From the National Hurricane Center: Hurricane HELENE: Intermediate Advisory Number 14A. Issued at 800 PM EDT Thu Sep 26 2024

Hurricane Helene is traveling across the Gulf of Mexico in the Big Bend area, where the Florida Panhandle meets the Florida Peninsula. It is fairly shallow water, as these things go, and it tends to be very warm water in late summer. Ideal for intensifying all kinds of tropical cyclones.

And Hurricane Helene is intensifying. As of the 9PM EDT update (O1:00 Zulu) the minimum central pressure of the storm had fallen to 941 millibars.

At 800 PM EDT (0000 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Helene was located near latitude 28.7 North, longitude 84.3 West. Helene is moving toward the north-northeast near 23 mph (37 km/h). A continued fast motion to the north-northeast is expected through landfall in the Florida Big Bend in a few hours. After landfall, Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 130 mph (215 km/h) with higher gusts. Helene is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Some additional strengthening is possible before the center reaches the coast in a few hours. Weakening is expected after Helene moves inland, but the fast forward speed will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States, including over the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians.

A recent category 4 hurricane you may remember, is Hurricane Harvey, that made landfall in Texas in 2017.

Sustained winds and storm surge do a lot of damage in a category 4 hurricane. This is defined as a hurricane in which sustained winds are 58–70 m/s, 113–136 knots, 209–251 km/h or 130–156 mph. Gusts may be higher. Sometimes MUCH higher. And this doesn't include the possible formation of tornadoes, a possible side effect of hurricanes.

Self-Defense Is Legal in Hawaii

And when cops ignore a bad situation, it gets worse. Charges dropped for man who fatally shot suspect in deadly Waianae dispute | KITV

You could file this under, "Don't bring a front end loader to a gunfight."

Waianae, Hawaii is about a 40 minute drive north and west of Honolulu, on the western shore of Oahu.

The charges are being dropped following the deadly neighborhood dispute in West Oahu because they said he did it out of self-defense. The man fatally shot his neighbor Hiram Silva on Aug. 31 after Silva plowed through the home with a front loader.

He had threatened to kill them since 2021, so they went and purchased firearms. I don't think that is particularly easy to do in Hawaii.

"This man's threatened to kill these people in 2021," said Keamo-Carnate's attorney, Michael Green. "They went out and got registered firearms after he threatened to kill everybody, to protect themselves. He was running all kinds of illegal things on his property he was ignored by the city."

The video of the front end loader crashing into the home is astonishing. Click thru; it's only a couple of minutes.

So why were the police not interested?

12-Year-Old With Rifle Saves His Dad

You take care of family. Wisconsin 12-Year-Old Shoots Bear, Saves Dad's Life During Attack

The elder Beierman said he had been tracking an injured bear near his cabin in western Wisconsin when he happened upon the animal in a small clearing under an oak tree.

The bear attacked, and Ryan Beirman was fighting with it, when his 12-year-old son shot and killed it.

Click thru for the details.

Beierman was left with a big gash on his face, other cuts and punctures to his forehead, right arm and leg, the Star Tribune reported.

He says that he is done bear hunting. Probably a smart move.

F*c*book and the CDC Worked to Censor Speech

Of course F*c*book had censorship utilities baked into their software. EXPLOSIVE CENSORSHIP DOCUMENTS – America First Legal Releases Complete Internal Facebook Onboarding Documents Used to Train CDC Employees on How to Censor the American Public

Today, America First Legal released additional documents from its litigation against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exposing the complete onboarding documents Facebook used to train CDC employees on their government censorship portal to block free speech on “Covid & Vaccine Misinformation.”

Many Americans remember the unprecedented level of censorship by the Biden-Harris Administration in 2021. Unelected public health officials constantly revised their guidance, leading to repeating something that was “true” a week ago could suddenly get an account suspended. The Biden-Harris Administration’s clumsy and heavy-handed attempts to keep up with the rapidly evolving information environment entailed by a global pandemic gave all Americans a stark reminder of why the First Amendment was listed first.

Click thru for the details.

Wednesday Link Roundup - 25 September

William Teach at Pirate's Cove starts things rolling with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

13. This ain’t Hell…: Chicago schools: Pass, amigo
14. Victory Girls Blog: Jill Biden Lives It Up While She Still Has Presidential Power

EBL - Tim Walz: We Can't Afford Four More Years of This...

Instapundit: Tim Walz agrees that Biden-Harris has been a disaster
EBL: MAGA Biden ☀️ and World Salad Kamala 🥗🤪☀️

Small Dead Animals - Sunday On Turtle Island

Woke World: Let them eat broccoli. Is he talking about Britain or Canada?
Comrade Kamala’s America: Harris is lying. Tlaib and her allies. Levitation 101.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 23 September 2024: More Where That Came From Edition

Running C code natively from JavaScript. (The New Stack)
You seem to be attempting to summon Cthulhu. Would you like me to help with that?

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Who Elected Jill Biden?

Bob Hoge at RedState, Kamala Campaigns in Wisconsin and Brings It All: Disinformation, Fake Accents, and Cackling Galore. At TownHall, Matt Vespa, What Caused a CNN Panel to Explode Over Kamala's Gun Ownership Story

Vlad Tepes - More government evidence of Covid fraud and vaxx death coverups, DOJ publishes a bounty on Trump, more: Links 1 for September 24, 2024

3. Exclusive: Iran’s Guards ban communications devices after strike on Hezbollah
4. Health Canada Approves Moderna’s New mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

Political Hat - News of the Week (September 22nd, 2024)

Ontario Would Be Fifth-Poorest, Quebec Second-Poorest, U.S. State
Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary, has written a piece for the Hub about the gap in economic performance between the U.S. and Canada.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/23/2024

UK: Starmer’s Approval Plummets as Scandals Erupt Over Gifts
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is now more unpopular than former Tory PM Rishi Sunak, which is quite a feat.

Again from Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 24 September 2024: Flu-Ridden Cow Leavings Edition

Intel's Razer Lake CPUs will follow after Nova Lake now that the Arrow Lake Refresh has been cancelled. (Tom's Hardware)

Look, I follow this stuff every single day, and if you told me that Veronica Lake was now set to follow Swan Lake because Rose Madder Lake had been cancelled I would have no idea whether that was real or not.

Small Dead Animals - Tuesday On Turtle Island

Cackling Kamala’s America: Schools are hostile to boys. A meme. The censorship is just beginning. A video you won’t find at CNN.
Woke World: Chaos and lawlessness in Poland. Paul Joseph Watson – He actually said it.

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

The Air Vent - Chicken Brains
Watts Up With That? - Tech Giant Secures Deal To Bring Back Reactor At Infamous Nuclear Power Plant

Don Surber - Highlights of the week - Don Surber

ITEM 3: The College Fix reported, “Pro-cop cafe owner wins $4 million after Boise State bullying: University violated her First Amendment rights, jury concluded.”

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Thanks to Robert Keys, a former GMU Econ student back in the late 1980s, for sending along this excellent clip of comedian Drew Dunn on our standard of living.

Maggie's Farm - Saturday morning links

Questions Abound After Jill Biden Takes Over Cabinet Meeting for a Visibly Tired Joe Biden
Oprah's Livestreamed 'Interview' of Kamala Was Another Train Wreck

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/24/24

The breakdown at the border has at once become a symbol of our polarization and an accelerant of it.
Undermining America

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Levitation 101

• The UN is a Joke - Sheryl Longin
• Ukraine Scores More Large Hits On Russian Ammo Storage Depots - ZH

I leave you with Sunday Funnies For 09-22-24 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Sunday Memes … from MaddMedic, and It's still Monday, damn it from Wirecutter.

Good Guys 5, Bad Guys 0

Not bad for one armed homeowner. 5 Thugs Take Swing At Home Invasion Vs. 1 Armed Homeowner... It Isn't Even Close | Concealed Nation

Five people decided to invade a home. The homeowner shot and killed one of the five.

Now his four accomplices are being charged with his murder — including his own brother, according to WOKV.

Florida is a felony murder state. If you are committing a felony, and someone is killed through the very-foreseeable consequences of your actions, you are held responsible. This is Florida, where the homeowner are only slightly, less-well-armed than the homeowners in Texas. The chances that the home they were invading contained an armed resident were VERY high. They were not in New Jersey, after all.

And so they are being held accountable for the death that they caused. If they all stayed home and played cards, they would probably all be alive. (No guarantees, of course. Stupid people and Darwin...)

The homeowner has not been arrested.

In addition to the felony murder charge, all four suspect are charged with attempted robbery.

This kind of thing also points out the fact that limits on ammunition are hazardous to the law abiding. Five people, against one law-abiding homeowner meet in an adrenaline-fueled encounter. How many bullets would he need if they hadn't decided to run like rabbits? How many times would he be allowed to miss, before one of them could kill him?

Self-defense is a human right, and, as I said, this didn't take place in New Jersey.

"They're Not Coming" - 911 Response Times in Vallejo, California

What happens when you lose a lot of police officers? As Vallejo police force shrinks, 911 response times soar

People are shocked to discover that if you don't have police officers on the PD payroll, then police officers can't respond to your 911 calls.

Vallejo, California is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the eastern shore of San Pablo Bay. It is about 13 miles south of Napa, or about an 25 mile drive north of Oakland. (Though that drive will take you about an hour, depending on traffic.)

The agency currently employs 73 sworn personnel — just 53 percent of its allocated positions and the lowest level in at least two decades.

Numbers in the department held fairly steady from 2014 to 2020, even if they were below the number of officers they were authorized to have.

However, the department has lost more officers than it hired in all but one of the last five years, with significant numbers departing in 2021 and 2023, public records show.

The response time to high priority calls have held fairly constant, rising by about 1 minute from "5 minutes and 56 seconds in 2019 to 6 minutes and 49 seconds this year."

The response time to lower priority calls has ballooned to 153 minutes (on average) for priority 3 calls.

Why have the numbers of officers fallen? Scandals, bad leadership, and a reform effort imposed by the California state DOJ. At least according to the journalists involved in this story. No mention is made of the defund the police initiatives most of the country dealt with. Maybe they were not an issue in Vallejo.

People in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, are being told by police to arm themselves for their own defense.

Nicole Hodge, a local restaurateur, reported a burglary. When cops showed up she was surprised at the quick response, but they were their to eat breakfast.

Frustrated by that incident and others like it, Hodge said she has grown weary of filing police reports and “realizing nothing happens.” When business owners met with police later that year to address the rash of burglaries, Lt. Steve Darden told Hodge she could buy a gun for protection, she said.

To Hodge, the message from Vallejo police was clear: “They’re not coming.”

Now to be fair, they were never coming to her rescue. "When seconds count, police are minutes away." That is true under the best circumstances. "The best" is not what exists in Vallejo, CA today.

Salvation

I find Alice Cooper to be a very interesting person. Over the years he has given some interesting interviews. I don't always like the music he produces, but I do like some of it. I don't listen to his music regularly, and his music isn't served up on my music streaming services

But I did trip over an interview he did recently, and this song, and a few others, came up.

This song is "Salvation" by Alice Cooper from his 2008 album Along Came a Spider.

Tuesday Links - 24 September

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony is up first with Daily News Stuff 21 September 2024: Fried Chimken Edition

Concord [the video game] reportedly cost a total of $400 million to develop. (PlayStation Lifestyle)

This is the game that Sony shut down less than two weeks after launch, at which point it had around 100 players. Total. Worldwide.

Insiders have said that the game had already cost $200 million to develop by the start of 2023, at which point it was in a "laughable state". Sony spent another $200 million getting additional studios to clean it up and create pre-rendered content.

SiGraybeard - Small Space News Story Roundup 43

So... why these three stories? Doesn't the total of the three imply Europe has lost their ability to conduct a space program? The new rocket needs a fix - it doesn't sound big, but everyone thought it was fine before the last launch. Going to Japan for H3 launches? Implies the bigger Ariane rockets aren't ready or available. Complaining about SpaceX?

Red State - Is Nothing Sacred? Islamist Attacks in Germany Prompt Heightened Security for Oktoberfest.Is Nothing Sacred? Islamist Attacks in Germany Prompt Heightened Security for Oktoberfest.

It's that time of year again, wherein people flock to Munich where the men put on leather shorts and lederhosen, and the women, dirndls, to celebrate one of Germany's greatest traditions - Oktoberfest.

But this year it's a little different. Oh, the beer will still flow freely, and there will be ample supplies of wiener schnitzel and sausages, and cries of "Zicke zacke, zicke zacke, hoi hoi hoi!" will still echo across the venue. The polka bands will still play, and inebriated partyers will still attempt to dance.

But this year, attacks by Islamist nutbags are prompting heightened security

Professor David Yamane at Gun Culture 2.0 - Guns and Their Cultured Despisers

I may be referring more in the future to the bane of my existence as someone trying to offer a more complex view of guns and gun culture in America:

“Liberal cultured despisers of guns”

Even worse, gatekeeping liberal cultured despisers of guns.

Geez - Ballots that arrived at my friend Jerry’s house;

Remind me; when did sending (multiple) ballots to everyone start? Remember when you had to request an absentee ballot? Whose idea was this?

Chicago Boyz - Heart of Cats

Cheney’s endorsement of Kamala reminded me of the role that “Never Trumpers” play in our political system. They form a “normative boundary” on the right-side of the political system which enables the Left to tar anybody outside of that boundary as “extremist” or “far-right.” Think of Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, and the rest as the Great Wall of the Establishment Right, beyond which rage the marauding hordes of Trumpist populism and MAGA who will never get invited inside for fellowships or Bethesda wine tastings

Clayton Cramer - Not Stitches After All. He continues on his road to recovery.

I went in for post-op examination today. The P-A looked over all the stitches and said i was healing very well. And nome of these stitches are stitches. They are all glue. She says they produce much smaller and better looking scars than stitches.

And Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: One Last Series

Top linkers for the week ending September 20:

1.  EBL (11)
2.  (tied) 357 Magnum & A View From The Beach (10)

Self-Defense Is Legal in Michigan

Sometimes it is hard to be sure that it is. Man involved in deadly Lions tailgating shooting was acting in self-defense, will not be charged: prosecutor | Fox News

Prosecutors in Michigan announced that they will not file charges following a deadly shooting at a popular tailgating site after the Detroit Lions game on Sunday, adding that the shooter was acting in self-defense.

It only took the DA four days to come to that conclusion. Given some of the other charges laid in Wayne County, Michigan, I'm guessing that the evidence was overwhelming.

There were some strange occurrences on that day, but the fight, and having to defend oneself is all to familiar in 21st Century America.

There was a fight, and then an argument. And then a shooting. There is no info on what any of the preceding incidents were about, but all of this at a location where people wanted to hang out and enjoy football.

Self-defense is a human-right.

Who Was Funding This Guy?

From Cristina Laila at The Gateway Pundit - BREAKING: Trump Would-Be Assassin Ryan Routh Possessed List That Included Dates From August to October Where Trump Appeared or Was Expected to Be

Trump would-be assassin Ryan Routh possessed a memo that included a memo that included dates from August to October of venues where Trump had appeared or was expected to be, prosecutors revealed in a detention filing on Monday.

Ryan Routh also traveled near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course and his Mar-a-Lago residence multiple times in the month leading up to his arrest.

Who was funding all of Ryan Routh’s reconnaissance trips?

Deep state? There's no Deep State. That's a conspiracy! Misinformation, even.

Secret Service Agent Shoots Himself

At least they admit that it was a negligent discharge of the weapon. Metaphor Alert: Secret Service Agent Shoots Himself in DC Negligent Discharge - Shooting News Weekly

Click thru for details.

We don’t know if he/she shot him/herself in the foot, but the Secret Service has been doing that for years now, so why not? Carry on. Nothing to see here.

I would love to know more, but this is the last that anyone from USSS will say.

Hat tip to Jews Can Shoot.

Oscillation

Soen is another Metal band out of Sweden. (Don't worry - the song is in English!) In this case Progressive Metal, which to my ear sounds a lot like the Progressive Rock music of decades past. Though they have been compared to Tool, they are not a copy of Tool, even if they have a love of complexity, that is similar to Tool.

This is "Oscillation" by Soen from their 2012 album Cognitive.

I Am Guessing That Drugs Were Involved

Though that is only a guess. Platte Co. homeowner shoots, kills partially-clothed intruder Wednesday morning

The homeowner told deputies he witnessed the male acting strangely, including praying to a horse and attacking the homeowner’s dog. The homeowner told deputies that when the man tried to forcibly enter the house, he opened fire, striking the man.

He was dead at the entry to the home when cops arrived.

Dearborn, Missouri is about a 40 mile drive north of Kansas City, Missouri.

Now I can't prove that his behavior was due to drugs. He may have been acting crazy for another reason. In the end, it doesn't matter, since he tried to break into a home where he was not wanted, and paid a tremendous price.

The investigation is ongoing, but apparently no one has been arrested.

A $12 Billion Jobs Program for Particle Physicists

Actually the $12 billion figure underestimates the cost. That is the construction cost for phase 1. It does not include the costs for phase 2, and it also does not include the ongoing costs of running the device, which is estimated at $500 million per year.

How much would phase 2 cost? I'm not sure I believe the figures for phase 1. Also, what's the net present value of a stream of payments of $500 million per year, that lasts in perpetuity?

Sabine Hossenfelder has become unpopular among physicists, because she keeps raining on their parade. The next stop in the parade - or the stop CERN^‡ would like to build - is massive particle collider, like the Large Hadron Collider, only on a much more massive scale. The Future Circular Collider, or FCC, would be 90 kilometers in circumference, 300 meters under the Swiss countryside. The problem is, it wouldn't really accomplish anything.

It's really not a good investment, because there is no reason to expect anything new in the energy range that it could reach. The most likely thing to happen is that it will measure some constants in the Standard Model to higher precision, and that's it. That sounds good if you're a particle physicist, because it will keep you employed, but it's got next to no societal impact. It's a high-risk, low-payoff project, basically insanity. I don't even know why we're even seriously discussing this.

There is an interesting part, in which a chemist, not a physicist, was telling the UK government that of course this collider would discover new particles, even though it won't. So the UK government would have spent billions of British pounds funding an experiment based on misinformation. Isn't that the thing that the EU keeps trying outlaw?

Sabine Hossenfelder pointed this out the UK government. Another reason she went from writing for the New York Times, to ranting on YouTube - an "anti-career."

Folks in the US can take solace in the fact that we won't be asked to fund this, but will be asked, or not asked, to fund other stuff that may or may not be of any value.

This is Sabine Hossenfelder's video Chances for CERN’s Mega-Collider are Sinking

‡ CERN stands for Conseil européen pour la Recherche nucléaire or the European Organization for Nuclear Research

How do you spell corruption? Baltimore Police

Do you think we still live in a free country? Think again. Now this all took place years ago. Do you think that things have gotten better?

Jason Fyk was arrested for TAKING a CELLPHONE video of family members of cops, who were in a bar fight. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and faced hundreds of years in jail. How do you spell corruption? He. Was. Taking. A. Video.

He spent two months in one of the worst jails in the country, and spent $60,000 on legal representation before he was released and the charges dismissed.

When he was released, the judge apologized to him. That is all the recompense he has ever received.

This is a bit of the Tim Cook interview with Jason Fyk: Man FACING LIFE IN PRISON For Filming A Street Fight, Major Police Corruption

50 Years of Blazing Saddles

Fifty years of classic Mel Brooks.

This is the Film Threat tribute to Blazing Saddles CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF BLAZING SADDLES! | Film Threat Reviews

Old Age & Treachery versus Youth and Exuberance

I have to say that I have come to love the videos from The Fat Electrician. He makes history fun, the way history should be taught, and hasn't been in over 100 years.

The 77th Division during WWII was set up with a bunch of "old guys." The average age of recruit in the 77th Infantry Division was 33 years, while the Army in general the average was 23 years. It was an "experiment" to see what could the older volunteers/draftees could do. They did quite a lot.

Since people like references, here's an article: The Heroes of Hacksaw Ridge from The Saturday Evening Post.

But I would just watch the video. It is 41 minutes, so it is a long watch by itself. If you have any interest in World War II, it is definitely worth it.

This is The Fat Electrician Video Old Age & Treachery - The Unstoppable 77th Infantry Division.

Why Does Disney Keep Setting Cash On Fire?

I'm pretty sure that you have not watched Agatha All Along, from Disney/Marvel, because no one is watching it. I watched about half of the first episode, and then I gave up. I don't care about the characters, the story, the back story, ... none of it. I won't be bothering to watch the rest of it. Well, I didn't finish the first episode, and I didn't bother to watch the 2nd episode at all.

The little I did see was predictable, and boring. The characters were predictable and boring. From what I know of the plot of the show, it too is predictable and boring.

As Gary says in the video, it was a bold movie for Disney to follow up a Star Wars show about a coven of lesbian witches, with a Marvel show about a coven of lesbian (and gay) witches. I don't think the strategy will pay off.

This is Gary "Nerdrotic" Buechler's video Agatha All Along is AGONY All Along. It is a 13 minute video, longer than I usually like to highlight on a weekday, so plan accordingly.

DAs HATE Self-Defense

Also, self-defense is legal in Michigan. Romulus murder case dismissed after judge rules killing was in self-defense

Judge Brian Oakley with Romulus's 34th District Court dismissed the murder charge and the charge of using a firearm during the commission a felony Sept. 4 after hearing some of the evidence in the case during the preliminary examination and determining Peterson shot Carey in self-defense, said Burton-Harris [attorney for the guy charged] and Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller.

The dead guy was the ex-boyfriend of the shooter's mother. There was a long history of domestic violence. The two had been in an argument, which escalated. Cops showed up to the scene of a shooting and arrested the guy still alive. The District Attorney then brought charges, because that is what they do. Or what they are supposed to do. But lately it seems they don't go after the real bad guys, but the legal gun owners.

Romulus, Michigan is in Wayne County, about 14 miles southwest of downtown Detroit. Romulus is home to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

"My client, like anybody, is happy to not have the most serious charges hanging over his head, but he is not happy about the situation," Burton-Harris said. "He's certainly not happy about having to do what he had to do. He understands and acknowledges someone lost their life. It's a very unfortunate situation."

Prosecutors are still deciding whether or not to appeal this decision, because they hate self-defense.

Self-defense is a human right, and it seems to be your legal right in Michigan.

Democrat Threatens SCOTUS Justices

From Hannah Nightingale at the The Post Millennial: Democrat donor from Alaska charged with threatening to assassinate 6 Supreme Court justices

Another supporter of ActBlue.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, has been accused of sending over 465 messages through an online portal to the Supreme Court between March 10, 2023 and July 16, 2024. Beginning on January 4, 2024, Anastasiou "began sending messages intended to threaten harm and convey threats of harm towards Supreme Court Justices 1- 6 and Family Members 1 and 2," a court filing stated. He had also donated to Democrat fundraising platform, ActBlue, dozens of times, totaling over $700.

But remember what "your betters" in the press say - Republicans are the real threat.

In a press release, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, "We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with. Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear.

Of course he really wants decisions based on politics, but he can't say that out loud.

Click thru. Hat tip to Andy Ngo.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 21 September

Wombat-socho starts us off with In The Mailbox: 09.18.24 (Morning Edition)

Don Surber: Musk 1, Eurocrat 0
Glenn Reynolds: Juries, Prosecutors, & The Rule Of Law

Animal Magnetism - Animal’s Hump Day News

Harris won’t stop dodging questions. She can’t. Every answer reveals her incompetence.
This is a hell of a good idea.

EBL - An Important Message From Democrat Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom approves this message and endorses Kamala Harris!
Instapundit: An important message from Gavin Newsom:

The Right Way - Top of the News

What Alleged Trump Shooter Advocated In Rambling Manifesto - Bongino Report
Climanut St. Greta, Named Jew Hater Of The Week - The Pirates Cove

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 19 September 2024: Dorayaki Derangement Edition

Twitter is using Cloudflare to provide service in Brazil. (The Guardian)
Cloudflare handles something like a quarter of the web traffic in the world, so blocking Cloudflare would cause complete chaos for Brazil's internet users.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.19.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Vox Popoli: Douhet Wept, The Extreme Elderly Don’t Exist, Pager Terror Attacks, Shots Fired, and Loomer or Lunatic?
Ammo.com: Gun Laws v. Crime Rates

Tam at View From The Porch - Tab Clearing...

Chris Arnade walks the Faroe Islands.
The Throwing Madonna.

DaleyGator at If You are Left you ain't Right - WEEKEND LINKY LOVE

Irons in the Fire talks Kamalas hatred of your rights
Ceder Q reminds what NOT to put in grits

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Border Chief Told To Shut Up about Special Interest Aliens

Mary Chastain at LI, Ex-Border Chief: Biden Admin Told Him to Cover Up Terror Encounters, Arrests. “The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border.”

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 9.20.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Director Blue: A Few Thoughts On Operation Grim Beeper
EBL: An Important Message From Democrat Gavin Newsom, also, “So, I grew up in a middle class family…”

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - LinkSwarm For September 20, 2024

“Oregon DMV admits that they’ve registered hundreds of illegal immigrants to vote since 2021.”
“PA Supreme Court rules that misdated ballots must not be counted.”

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism – The Nation Edition!

American Hell-egy – “Trump’s VP pick, J.D. Vance, is the perfect soulless vessel for the future of the MAGA-fied Republican Party.”
yes, the horrible future for the Bushes, McCains, Cheneys, Romneys…

Vlad Tepes - RFK with Charlie Kirk, heart attack deaths 2X as likely in the jabbed, Robert Spencer on the Nazis and the left, and Israel related materials: Links 2 for September 19, 2024

5. Alex Berenson: Risk to people of death from heart attack, dramatically higher if jabbed with Covid mRNA

Small Dead Animals - Thursday On Turtle Island

Comrade Kamala’s America: Harris in 2018. A new Trump song. What did John Brennan know?
Blackie’s Canada: Justin’s Islamophobia Czar. Climate Justin will burn jet fuel to the UN. The residential school censors.

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Juliette Sellgren talks with AEI president Robert Doar about think tanks and scholarship.
Steven Hayward argues that “the originalist revolution will never be complete until we fully appreciate the natural law roots of the common law.”

And again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.20.24 (Evening Edition)

Shot In The Dark: School’s Out, Self-Fulfilling, The Minnesota Prototype, Jackboots Of Joy, and Berg’s 20th Law Goes 33 For 33
STUMP: Cuomo, COVID, & The Nursing Homes Part II

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

How did Robin DiAngelo get away with it for so long?
The Assassination Wish Fulfillment.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/19/24

Heather Mac Donald: The New York Times finds victim-blaming repellent—except when the victim is the former president.
Trump Made Them Do It

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Deep State Democrats and the Continuing Attempts to Kill President Trump

• What a Never Trumper believes - Don Surber • It’s Not Just Haitians In Springfield. Mass Immigration Is Destroying The American Nation - Federalist

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 09/20/2024

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily that there are currently five known assassination teams in the United States here to kill Donald Trump, three of which are foreign.

I leave you with Your mid-week memes from Wirecutter, Got the cat memes off the internet....... from Theo Spark, and Thursday Memes … from MaddMedic.

15 Minutes Is a Long Time to Wait If Bad Things Are Happening

New York City and 911 statistics. Data shows NYC's 911 response time is increasing, as are traffic fatalities - CBS New York

CBS New York is doing some stuff right,

A concerning factor is a significant increase in the end-to-end average response time to crime-in-progress 911 calls. In 2020, the average response time was 10 minutes, 56 seconds. In 2024, it was 15:23.

That is a 40.7% increase in the response time to a crime-in-progress. Now a lot of bad things can happen in 10 minutes, but even more can happen in 15 minutes.

CBS New York seems to be interested in only presenting the statistics as a mystery. There is not context. Were there more police in 2020, or fewer calls? Has something impacted traffic, making it harder for cops to get to the scene of a crime? These are mysteries that do not interest CBS New York.

These statistics come from the Mayor's Management Report, released by Eric Adams' administration in September. It is 558 pages of bureaucratic boilerplate, doublespeak, deflection, and, yes, some statistics for the past 5 years. I have not read it. You can find a link at the article linked at the top of this post.

I would imagine that the report contains some statement on how Mayor Adams' administration is planning to address the issues, which include shootings, gang-related activity, etc. Or maybe not. One would think that the reporter/editor of the article would have included some of that. Something along the lines of, "We are going to hire more police to address the 911 response time." Or maybe Democrats think that is the price you pay for defunding the police. Why do you want to call 911 anyway?

Calling 911 is a fine thing to do in an emergency. They can send a lot of help your way, but that help will not arrive immediately. You might want to think about what you are going to do in the meantime.

Europeans Don't Like Free Speech

From Don Surber we get the following: Musk 1, Eurocrat 0

When you mess with the bull, ...

The opening salvo from the EU was in July.

On July 12, AP reported, “The European Union said Friday that blue checkmarks from Elon Musk’s X are deceptive and that the online platform falls short on transparency and accountability requirements, the first charges against a tech company since the bloc’s new social media regulations took effect.”

EU was upset that Twitter now charges people with a blue check $8 a month — $7 by yearly subscription.

Musk responded by telling the world how the EU tried to coerce him into censoring people that the EU didn't like.

Then Thierry Breton, the one-time Commissioner for Internal Market of the EU, sent a threatening letter to Musk about silencing "hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation." Who gets to decide what is disinformation? Why Thierry Breton of course.

After that Congress sent a letter to the EU wanting to understand how they are threatening Americans' right to Free Speech, and an American company.

And finally, the EU, recognizing a losing battle, canned Thierry Breton.

On Monday, Breton resigned — although the letter he ironically posted on Twitter indicates European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen forced him out.

There is more, including an indictment of "newspapers that have moved away from reporting news and using paper." Click thru.

Will-O'-The-Wisp

The Omnific is a trio from Australia. Two bass players, Matt Fack and Toby Peterson-Stewart, and Jerome Lematua playing the drums. Some people object to a band with 2 basses; I like it. It might have a bit too much energy for first thing in the morning however. Give the caffeine a chance to do its thing for a few minutes, and then hit play.

I found these guys via Spotify last year. I'm guessing they were included in a playlist, probably one of the "Top 40" - or whatever playlists - though that is only a guess.

This is "Will-O'-The-Wisp" by The Omnific from the 2024 album The Law of Augmenting Returns. I find this video completely annoying. I usually do, but this one has been turned up to 11. Listen to the song, but browse a different tab.

Spotify has a series of playlists. "Rock This," "Kickass Metal" (if memory serves), and a couple of others that list the top songs by genre in terms of streams. They do a fair job of cutting through the Pop Music schlock, though some of it is still awful. Still it is a good way to find new music.

Friday Links - 20 September

Professor Yamane at Gun Culture 2.0 is first with Student Gun Range Field Trip Reflection Essays for Fall 2024 Forthcoming

Later this week, I will begin posting some of the field trip reflection essays my Sociology of Guns students were required to submit following our visit to Veterans Range at the start of this semester.

The field trip is historically a highlight of the course for students and the reflection essays are among the most popular items I post to my blogs every year.

Jack Hadfield at The Publica - UK: Judge Orders Victim Of Pakistani Grooming Gang To Delete Her Request To Have Her Rapists Deported

GB News discovered that the speech was heavily censored by the judge, with multiple sections erased due to restrictions they imposed. “I’d like to request that after sentencing and upon Rudy and Showabe’s release, that they should be deported back to Pakistan as this is where they originated from and came here to exploit children,” the original uncensored conclusion of the statement read.

Raw Egg Nationalist at The American Mind - Disrupting the Right

Like the Business Insider doxx that almost was, Hope Not Hate’s eggsposé is an obvious parallel construction. A parallel construction, if you don’t know, is what law enforcement and journalists do when they want to hide their sources. Let’s say you’re a journalist and you obtained a crucial piece of evidence by illegal means. Perhaps you contacted a farm-shop owner and got them to break data-protection laws and reveal customer data (even trying to solicit this is a crime, I might add). So what do you do? You make up a plausible story to explain how you got that evidence legally. An anonymous tip off, a social-media post of a distinctive-looking cat you were able to trace—anything.

The Daily Signal - ABC News Correspondent Says Harris Failed to Provide ‘Specific’ Answers ‘Multiple Times’ During Interview

ABC News’ senior White House correspondent Selina Wang on Tuesday said Vice President Kamala Harris often did not offer detailed responses during her National Association of Black Journalists interview.

The Other McCain - A Message From the Mossad

Apparently, Mossad agents penetrated the supply chain by which Hezbollah was obtaining its electronic communications devices, but there’s a lot of finger-point between the Taiwanese manufacturer and the Hungarian middleman about how this could have happened. At any rate, the Mossad reportedly inserted pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), “a highly explosive material,” inside the batteries of the devices, which “were then detonated by an external signal that caused the batteries inside to overheat.”

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 19 September 2024: Dorayaki Derangement Edition

Congress is also working on legislation that would require AM radios in all new cars made in the US. (The Verge)

As standard equipment, with no bullshit.

Car makers are upset because this could add as much as a dollar to the cost of building a car.

It's not for music or talk radio, but to provide a standard method for emergency broadcasts.

SiGraybeard - About Those FAA Fines on SpaceX

There have been headlines in the news aggregators for the last couple of days that FAA has announced big fines against SpaceX for alleged safety violations. The number being quoted is $633,000. Today, the story was changed to SpaceX saying they'll sue the FAA for regulatory overreach.

Again from The Other McCain - The Only Trick in Their Bag

Look, I get it: Biden put Democrats in a bad spot. He could have — and should have — announced in early 2023 that he would not seek a second term, thereby making it possible for Democrats to have a primary to choose their 2024 presidential candidate. Unfortunately for Democrats, while senile dementia diminishes many cognitive functions, it does not diminish egotism.

The Feral Irishman - Explosive Device Found. Explosive Device Not Found. Now, Incident Renamed As A "Suspicious Occurrence".

It looks like the ministry of propaganda is "deep sixing" this story too.

Moonbattery - Californians Push Back Against Democrats on Crime

Prop 36 would undo some of the damage inflicted when California moonbats effectively legalized shoplifting by making any theft under $950 a misdemeanor.

Meep at Stump - Drug OD Deaths Down... It's Okay News, I Guess

10.6% is not a “plummet”.

This is a sad attempt at selling an okay decrease after a horrific climb as some fantastic breakthrough.

Self-Defense Shooting in New Mexico Leads to Second Body

I doubt we will ever know the entire story. Hobbs Police find dead mother during break-in investigation

He broke into his neighbors' home. The neighbors barricaded themselves in the bedroom. Eventually one shot was fired through the bedroom door. Cops showed up and he was taken to a local hospital, but he passed away.

Officers were advised of Thames’s mother, Kristie Thames, who lives with him in a neighboring home. HPD attempted to contact Mrs. Thames but were unsuccessful. To ensure welfare, officers forcefully entered the home to find Mrs. Thames dead in a bedroom.

I'm getting a Norman Bates vibe to the whole thing, but maybe I watch too many old movies.

Hobbs, New Mexico is about 90 miles southwest of Lubbock, Texas, and about 250 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

Cops are still investigating, but no one has been arrested.

Self-defense is a human-right, and it appears to be a legal right in New Mexico.

A Digital Fahrenheit 451

The powers-that-be are editing books to remove things they don't want you to think about. Does it seem familiar to you? - by Miguel Gonzalez

Frederick Forsyth wrote a number of Cold War spy novels. Several have been made into movies, include The Odessa File, The Day of the Jackal, and The Fourth Protocol. This is about that last book.

In that book there is a letter, from a Soviet Spy in Britain to Russia.

Extracted from The Fourth Protocol by British writer Frederick Forsyth. It is a fictious letter from Soviet spy Kim Philby to the Chairman of the USSR about turning Great Britain fully to Communism. The piece is full of very insightful and scary information that I can’t help but see reflected in our country.

Click thru for an image of that part of the book.

The rest of the letter is illuminating, especially the part how the Soviets infiltrated the British Labour Party ever so slowly and effectively it became a proper tool of the USSR. I would urge you to read it, but make sure you find a first edition of the book (1984-85), or you will run the risk of getting an edited version with that letter removed for reasons unknown, even to Forsyth himself who only found about this year.

That letter talks about how democracy can be overturned by zealots working for years to destroy a country. And yes, it does sound familiar.

People have not read Bradburry's Fahrenheit 451. That is because it exposes too much. Captain Beatty, in that book, talks about how it didn't start with book burning; it started by removing passages that were offensive to various groups. Eventually the entire books were deleted, because if you were made to think by a book, how could you be happy. (And so you were offended, or something.)

The bigger the population, the more minorities. Don’t step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico.

Is this passage offensive to someone? Edit it out of the book. Do not think different thoughts, all the same thought.

This is what Bradbury himself had to say:

Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by the minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the library closed forever.

And then there is equality.

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. [Fire-Captain Beatty, in Fahrenheit 451]

In other words, we must all be crushed down to the lowest common denominator.

You really should read that book. (And the title was stolen from a recent comment... )